How to design my online store’s internal link structure

Here we are going to figure out the keys to developing a good on-site linkbuilding strategy to improve the SEO of our website.

We know what linkbuilding is and the different types of link construction or generation that exist, both internal (on-site) and external (off-site). In this article, we will try to define the different aspects of developing a good on-site linkbuilding strategy for our dropshipping store, ie, within our own website.

We will then define and explain the steps to follow to easily get our dropshipping store listed on Google and multiply our chances of getting a better SEO.

1. Do an SEO study that serves as a basis for the strategy

This isn’t done only for our interlinking plan, but if you are going to be executing an SEO strategy then the first thing you will need to do is keyword research, in order to determine which are the most workable keywords to use as regards your target audience.

In the SEO for e-commerce article, you can also see more information about which factors to consider when making such a selection of the most important keywords.

2. Prioritise your content through on-site linkbuilding

Here comes one of the most delicate points and into which the most time and attention should be put, as it will be the basis of a correct implementation of an on-site linkbuilding strategy.

One must first determine the whole dropshipping store structure or content hierarchy in a prior document, such as Excel, and establish the main keyword for each one. The objective is to make sure that all the links are correctly placed and to create a logical navigation from the main sections to the secondary areas, and vice versa.

How do I create this document? Follow these steps:

• Divide the online store content into hierarchy columns, ie., in the first column would be the home page, then the main sections, within them are the secondary areas, and finally the products.
• If your dropshipping store is very extensive and the job of entering all the products would be time-consuming, no problem: you can set-up the on-site linkbuilding strategy based on the categories and simply concern yourself with making the cross-selling as attractive as possible (which we’ll explain a bit later).
• Set up the last column to set the main keyword for each section, as we’ll explain next.

3. Defining the keywords for each section

The idea of defining these keywords (if possible, one per section) is to make sure that all the internal links that point to that section contain that keyword or a small variation of it in its anchor text.

When it is time to choose a suitable keyword for each section we must consider the following:

• The keyword must be consistent with the content of the section, that is, the keyword must appear in the text of that section.
• This keyword appears in the main header (H1) of the section.
• The URL of the section contains that keyword or a very similar one.

Make sure that the URL of each section or product contains either exactly the same keyword or something very similar to that which we have already set up for it.

Let’s look at an example, where our keyword and anchor text were original gifts:

• The destination URL would have to be as follows: https://www.bigbuy.eu/es/regalos-originales.html
• Also, “original gifts” should appear in the text of the page in question.

4. Set up the specific links

You will need to create the link architecture in the interlink tracking document we have created as follows:

Main section 1 → link to secondary sections 1

Main section 2 → link to secondary sections 2

Secondary sections 1 → link to main section 1

Secondary sections 2 → link to main section 2

It is all about creating a network of links from the main sections to their secondary areas and vice versa. But we don’t want to mix section links with each other, since this does not make it clear to Google which categories are the main ones and which are secondary. That is, the pages in section 1 will always point to other pages in section 1. We will not link a page in section 1 to a page in section 2.

5. Also, think of your users in terms of browsing and cross-selling

Although we have already mentioned that the main objective of our on-site linkbuilding strategy is to provide Google with an understanding of the content structure of the dropshipping store, it is also very important not to neglect our users and to make it clear where they can easily find the links they need to navigate the website.

We are interested in making the link structure consistent for users because the more pages they visit and browse in our online store, the better we will be valued by Google. Search engines take note of the rebound percentage of a website when deciding if they will put it in one of the desired first positions. Just in case this term does not ring a bell, the rebound percentage is the number of people who, after accessing your website, then abandon it without completing any action. Unlike most such statistics, the rebound percentage must be as low as possible (imagine a page with an 80% rebound. This would mean that, out of 10 people who enter your website, 8 leave without doing anything. Worrying, right?).

To reduce the rebound percentage we will need to perform a few different actions:

• Make the navigation structure of our online store easier and more logical to follow. This can be done through “breadcrumbs” for example. This term refers to the path that the user has followed from the start of the menu to the page where they then find themselves.
• Establish our cross-selling strategy. This is done through the suggested products on each product sheet.

Once we have everything ready, the ideal thing to do is to review the website as if we were a user so as to ensure that the content is categorised in a logical manner (not only for Google, but also for the users themselves).

These are the five basic phases of creating an on-site linkbuilding structure for our dropshipping store in order to help improve SEO positioning.